The Early Show

Pass The Caramel Sauce

By Ellen Crean

November 23, 2005 / 9:26 AM EST / CBS

On Thursday, millions of American families will be sitting down to their traditional Thanksgiving dinners, complete with turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and the like.

But it recently occurred to The Early Show's Dave Price that kids may have a different idea of what should be served at the table Thanksgiving Day.

So he asked some kids at Glebe Elementary School in Arlington, Va., what they think should be on the Thanksgiving dinner menu.

A few of the children's suggestions:

Fish sticks

Spaghetti and meatballs

"A German food; it's called spaetzle with gravy."

Orange juice

"First, we'll have chili dogs. Then cake and ice cream."

Mashed potatoes with caramel on them

A chocolate turkey

"A turkey, and you cut it in five pieces and put rice and, you know, hot sauce and a hot dog on top and then put it in hot sauce again and then I'll eat it. I like that."

Dave, intrigued by the turkey-hot sauce-hot dog recipe, wanted to know more — like how many hot dogs does one need to buy for that dish?

Came the answer: "Just five."

Another junior chef suggested chili dogs. How many of those? "It depends on how many people come. I would say about 40."

How much rice? "Like five pounds."

Dave tried to get funny, asking a boy named Brandon, "Do you serve antacid in your family for dessert?" He got a serious "No" in response.

Then came the time for the children to follow up their words with action. Dave went to the supermarket and came back the next day with the ingredients for the children's dream feast.

After all, some people don't like turkey, but everyone loves chili dogs. But why make 41? Because, explained one of the kids, "I can eat 10 of them, and maybe someone else could eat 10, so 40 of them, I guess, will be enough."

Answered Dave, "I hope so."

"Some people are out of their minds."

For the caramel mashed potatoes, Dave told a girl named Sabina, "You've put in half a bottle of caramel in just a small plate of potatoes. You can't even smell the potatoes any more." (This observation only served to make Sabina giggle.)

"So," Dave asked the children, "if we had a Thanksgiving meal and we served chili dogs, caramel potatoes, chocolate turkey and hot sauce-hot dog-turkey, would that be a real Thanksgiving?"

The answer: An emphatic group nod.

In the end, there was nothing left for Dave to do but to thank the children for letting him invade their classroom.

"Happy Thanksgiving! Dig in!"

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